A finite generalized hexagon admitting a group acting transitively on ordered heptagons is classical (Q1924224)

The author classifies all finite generalized hexagons which admit a group of automorphisms acting transitively on the ordered ordinary heptagons. The result is that such a generalized hexagon is Moufang, and is in fact (up to duality) either a split Cayley hexagon associated to \(G_2(q)\) or a triality hexagon associated to \(^3D_4(q)\) (these two classes of generalized hexagons, together with their duals, comprise all finite Moufang hexagons). The author shows moreover that a finite generalized octagon cannot have a group acting transitively on the ordered ordinary nonagons. Combined with earlier work of the author and Thas, this yields the following remarkable result. Theorem. A finite generalized \(n\)-gon which admits a group of automorphisms acting transitively on the ordered ordinary \((n+1)\)-gons is Moufang; moreover, the finite Moufang polygons with this property are known. For projective planes, (i.e. for triangles, this is of course an old result due to Ostrom-Wagner). The proof is very elegant and geometric and does not use the classification of finite simple groups.